Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent discussions his Department has had with Integrated Care Boards on (a) increasing vaccination rates for and (b) prevention of measles.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) declared a national standard incident response for measles on 10 July 2025 to oversee the risk assessment and public health response to the increase of measles cases in England and coordinate the multi-agency input to the response nationally with the aim of limiting further spread. The Department, UKHSA and the National Health Service are already working with local partners to undertake community and stakeholder engagement to raise awareness that measles is circulating, promote the importance of measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccination and target catch-up efforts at key under vaccinated communities and in a range of settings.

NHS England is working with local health teams, including integrated care boards, to monitor reported measle cases, provide advice and support local communities to be aware of action they can take to protect themselves, including getting vaccinated.

Building on the MMR coverage gains achieved in 2023/24, NHS England continues to deliver national and regional improvement plans that include activities to strengthen the routine vaccination offer and to address inequalities by supporting MMR catch up vaccination by school age vaccination services in schools and community settings, for example, summer ‘catch up’ immunisation clinics are being stood up in some of the areas of England with the lowest MMR uptake including Liverpool, Knowsley, Sefton and St Helens.  In London, childhood vaccination clinics have been stood up in outbreak areas including targeted community clinics, pharmacies offering MMR and we are working with school immunisation services to deliver some MMR catch up in schools once term starts.

Additional steps are being taken which will strengthen efforts to reduce the risk of future measles outbreaks, including bringing forward MMR vaccination for children so they are protected sooner. There are also plans to explore new ways of delivering vaccinations such as greater use of community pharmacies and during at health visits. Further to this, a new national communications and marketing campaign will kick off in August 2025 with a brand-new programme of always on activity to reach parents, pregnant women and multicultural audiences and encourage uptake of MMR as well as other vaccinations.

It is vitally important that everyone takes up the vaccinations they are entitled to, for themselves, their families, and wider society.